This invention relates to a holder for used surgical needles for use in operating theaters or the like.
Many operations require the use of a large number, even greater than 30, of separate suture needles. These separate suture needles after use must be carefully stored since they are potentially contaminated and since it is necessary to count the needles to ensure that all are properly accounted for when the operation is complete.
The conventional technique for storing the suture needles after use is simply to place them in a towel and then to extract them from the towel during the counting process. This is of course highly dangerous in view of the danger of pricking and is relatively crude and inefficient.
One prior art proposal has been to provide a strip of foam material which has an adhesive back so the foam is attached onto the top surface of a surgical drape carried over a table surface in the operating theater. The foam material thus simply acts as a replacement for the towel and it is necessary to handle the foam material carrying the needles after the operation is complete. This is highly undesirable since the foam material is attached to the drape and the foam material carries the potentially dangerous needles with the potential of pricking. The foam material has therefore found little success and generally operating theaters continue to use the towel technique which is unsatisfactory.
It is one object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an improved holder for used surgical needles.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an improved method for handling and storing used surgical needles.